Clinic-in-a-Box

Accepted as a Work-in-Progress paper (Innovative Practice track) for the IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) 2026 conference.

Abstract

This work-in-progress innovative practice paper presents Clinic-in-a-Box (CiaB), an AI-powered stakeholder simulation system designed to enhance communication skill development in cybersecurity education. Cybersecurity clinic programs increasingly emphasize authentic client engagement as a core pedagogical approach, yet students often lack meaningful opportunities to practice stakeholder communication before entering professional settings. Traditional role-playing exercises, while valuable, suffer from inconsistency across instructors and sessions, limited scalability beyond small cohorts, and inability to systematically capture interaction data for assessment purposes.

CiaB addresses these gaps by leveraging large language models to create persistent, sector-specific stakeholder personas that maintain consistent organizational profiles across multiple student interactions. The system’s novelty lies in three key design features. First, sector-specific knowledge bases ensure that simulated stakeholders apply appropriate security frameworks relevant to their organizational context, including NIST Cybersecurity Framework for utility companies, CIS Controls for small businesses, and K-12-specific compliance requirements for school districts. Second, persistent organizational profiles maintain response consistency, enabling students to build ongoing relationships with simulated clients across multiple sessions. Third, comprehensive interaction logging generates detailed records of student-stakeholder exchanges, enabling systematic assessment of communication competencies by instructors.

The system architecture supports four distinct client types representing common cybersecurity consulting contexts: K-12 school districts, small businesses, utility companies, and municipal governments. Integration with the Arizona Cyber and AI Academy infrastructure enables longitudinal tracking of student communication development. The intended outcomes of this innovative practice include improved student stakeholder communication competencies, scalable practice opportunities that complement real-world client engagements, and enhanced instructor assessment capabilities through structured interaction logs.

The project launched in January 2026 with a faculty team and undergraduate researchers. Preliminary evaluation will include expert review of persona consistency by cybersecurity practitioners, comparative analysis of student interactions with CiaB versus traditional role-play scenarios, and student perception surveys regarding stakeholder authenticity. This paper describes the system design, its grounding in clinic-based learning and AI-augmented educational research, and detailed plans for effectiveness evaluation.